The Stephen-Argyle Storm Girl’s Basketball team hosted the Lake of the Woods Bears on Thursday night in a Section 8A Tournament game played in Argyle. Stephen-Argyle was playing in the game as the top seed in the West Sub-Section, while Lake of the Woods earned the #8 seed in the West Sub-Section and defeated the #9 seed in the West Sub-Section Climax-Fisher 54-48 in a play in the game on Tuesday night given them this opportunity. While Lake of the Woods started the game strong, Stephen-Argyle woke up and used an 18-0 run to end the first half to help cruise to a 72-29 victory. “We started slow, and credit to Lake of the Woods for the way they played us early,” said Stephen-Argyle Head Coach Heidi Carlson. “We did get it rolling and picked up the intensity, but we will need to make sure we are ready to go right from the start moving forward if we want to keep winning.”
FIRST HALF –
Stephen-Argyle got the first bucket of the game thanks to Greta Weberg, but it was Lake of the Woods that controlled the first portion of the game. The Bears would go on a 6-0 run with buckets from Bailey Husbands and Julisa Matthias, and after a Storm response, the Bears would go on another mini-run to find themselves up 12-9. Stephen-Argyle got a huge burst off the bench from Liv Efta, and thanks to a couple of scores from her, and one from Riley Mooney, the Storm found themselves back in front 15-12. “Liv (Efta) was on the court with a good group of girls and she took advantage of it,” said Stephen-Argyle Head Coach Heidi Carlson. “She was absolutely the burst that we needed off the bench.” Lake of the Woods wouldn’t go away however and continued to respond over the next couple of minutes, thanks to strong defense and some sloppy passes from Stephen-Argyle, the Storm only led 23-17 with six minutes remaining in the game. Stephen-Argyle then flipped a switch and would go on an 18-0 scoring run to end the first half and put a cushion between them and the Bears. “I thought the biggest difference from that point on was that the girls realized what they could do,” said Stephen-Argyle Head Coach Heidi Carlson. “We started slow, and they were disappointed, but they figured it out and their intensity was great the rest of the game”. Once again, Live Efta helped lead the charge, along with Greta Weberg, and Grace Carlson. It was Riley Mooney though that knocked down a three right before the halftime break, giving the Storm a 41-17 lead heading into the locker room. Stephen Argyle was led by Liv Efta with 14 points off the bench and had eight different players score in the first half. They also had 14 steals as a team in the first eighteen-minute of play. Lake of the Woods was led in the first half by Julisa Matthias with 8 points, and Brooklyn Hasbargen with 6 points.
SECOND HALF –
Stephen Argyle came out and scored the first six points of the second half to take a 47-17 lead, and after a Bears basket from Brooklyn Hasbargen, Riley Mooney responded with a three and the Storm led 50-19. The teams traded a few baskets making the score 52-24 Stephen-Argyle. The Storm would then go on another big run to take a commanding 63-24 lead. The run was capped off with another three-pointer from Riley Mooney. “We haven’t had the outside shot a whole lot this season so that was great to see a few drop,” said Stephen-Argyle Head Coach Heidi Carlson. “We will need to shoot the ball way the rest of the way if we want to have success.” The rest of the game was played with running time per Minnesota State High School League rules as Stephen-Argyle led by 35+. The running time slowed down the scoring, and it led to a final score of 72-29, as the Storm clinched a spot in the Section 8A quarterfinals this coming Saturday.
Stephen-Argyle improves to 20-3 on the season and will now play Warren-Alvarado-Oslo in the Section 8A quarterfinals this Saturday at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls. The tip-off is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. and it will be the first of the four Section 8A quarterfinal games that will be played at the Ralph on Saturday. The game can be heard on KROX starting with the RiverView Health pre-game show at 11:30 a.m. Lake of the Woods ends their season with a record of 4-19.
| 1st | 2nd | Final | |
| Lake of the Woods | 17 | 12 | 29 |
| Stephen-Argyle | 41 | 31 | 72 |
| For Stephen-Argyle | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Riley Mooney | 19 | 4 | 3 assists/4 steals |
| Liv Efta | 16 | 1 | 1 assist/2 steals |
| Grace Carlson | 8 | 6 | 3 blocks/2steals |
| Regan Swanson | 8 | 6 | 1 steal |
| Greta Weberg | 6 | 4 | 2 assists/4 steals |
| Macy Haugen | 4 | 2 | 1 assist/2 steals |
| Marey Kazmierczak | 4 | 5 | 3 assists/1 steal |
| Tessa Durand | 3 | 3 | 1 steal |
| Josie Rivard | 3 | 3 | 1 assist/1 block |
| Casey Osowski | 1 | 2 | 3 assists/1 steal |
| For Lake of the Woods | Points |
| Brooklyn Hasbargen | 11 |
| Julisa Matthias | 8 |
| Sophia Walton | 5 |
| Bailey Husbands | 4 |
| Ella Nordlof | 1 |
